Two die in I-70 crash; truck driver jailed on $1M bond

A tractor-trailer rests atop a crushed sedan after a fatal collision on Interstate 70 in South Strabane Township Saturday. (Sunni Martin/For the Observer-Reporter)

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A collision that closed Interstate 70 near the south junction with Interstate 79 in South Strabane Township Saturday morning claimed the lives of two people and injured four others.

According to state police, those killed were traveling east in a Dodge sedan when a westbound tractor-trailer crossed the median and collided with the car, driving it through a guardrail and over a hillside.

The driver of the sedan and a passenger in that vehicle died. The Washington County coroner withheld their identities pending notification of their next of kin.

“All I heard was a big boom,” said Sunni Martin, who lives on Vance Station Road, which runs along the eastbound lane of I-70. “It was loud. It shook the entire house.”

Another car struck the tractor-trailer in the eastbound lanes, according to police. The driver of that vehicle, Darlene Gray, 59, of Washington, sustained a moderate injury, while two passengers, Brandy Lynn Gray, 33, of Scenery Hill, and a child, were seriously injured. A fourth child in that car sustained a moderate injury.

The driver of the tractor-trailer, Yevgeniy Bugreyev, 44, of West Sacramento, Calif., was arrested and charged with two counts of vehicular homicide. He was arraigned before District Judge Robert Redlinger and is being held in the Washington County jail on $1 million bond pending a preliminary hearing.

The state Department of Transportation reported about 6 p.m. Saturday that the accident had been cleared from the travel lanes.